About thirty years ago, there were no portable computers but only those that were handled by experts. After affordable personal computers came out, smartphones were developed. Now everyone uses them to surf the Internet or do personal work. Presently, in order to analyze data, expensive programs and specialists such as data scientists are needed. Chung Byoung-jun (M.S. in Electronics and Computer Engineering, ‘11) and Lim Jun-won (Technology & Innovation Management, Doctoral Program), the joint representatives of News Jelly, are the pioneers who are solving this issue and striving for data democratization in Korea.

Joint CEOs of News Jelly, Lim (left) and Jung (right).

Q. Last time when News H interviewed News Jelly in 2014, it was a new start-up business. Have there been any changes during the last three years?

Lim: In the past, we as experts handled data-related operations for our clients from one end to the next. Now, we've created a program called DAISY that makes it easier for people to utilize data as freely as they want. Our customers can use the program by themselves without long, costly training. It automatically visualizes a lot of data at once, combining them into graphs or charts. By utilizing it, data popularization can be accomplished.

Lim: Our company is currently focusing on developing DAISY, which is being used by 20 to 30 public institutions, such as the city of Seoul, the National Information Society Agency (NIA), and by various provincial government buildings. In addition to the program, we create interactive content, run data visualization consultations and an education business that teaches students how to solve problems using data.

Lim thinks about News Jelly's improvement over the past three years.

Jung: We considered whether to raise brand awareness, or develop DAISY during the first year of News Jelly's initiation. We first decided to increase brand recognition by making data journalism content. Then, as we figured out the needs for the program, we started focusing on DAISY from 2015.

Q. Tell us the separate areas of business that you are working on as joint representatives of News Jelly. What does the company comprise of?

Lim: I work in the management side of the company, such as marketing, business strategy, and sales. Jung is in charge of technological development and services.

Jung: News Jelly is comprised of four teams. There is the business development team, which is led by Lim, and the technology team which focuses on R&D, managed by myself. There is also the product development team, and the contents team, which also works on formulating products.

Bar graph made by DAISY showing the mortality rate caused by swimming accidents. The color of the graphs -green, yellow, and red- each refers to June, July and August respectively. (Photo courtesy of News Jelly)

A line graph made by DAISY. The red line shows the total travel expenses and the green line shows the total tourists' income within Korea. Relevant data was provided by the Korea Tourism Organization. (Photo courtesy of News Jelly)

Q. What are News Jelly’s future plans?

Lim: Our plan is to include DAISY’s product line-ups that enable easy use of data, not only for public institutions but also for private ones and ordinary people like university students. In addition, we are preparing to expand the program for monetary and medical institutions as well, collecting and analyzing their data to devise specific methods of visualizing data.

Jung: We are planning to complete DAISY’s core technology this year. Using that, we can expand our field of business. We need to sophisticate our technology that recommends which visualization method to use, according to what kind of data the program is handling. Right now, we are achieving this by using the logic of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology that automatically looks into patterns and distinguishes the domain of data. We are going to advance this by applying AI's learning capacity. We will also incorporate Big Data into our data source.

Q. Any advice to students who are interested in data utilization, and in starting their own businesses?

Lim: Nowadays there are many trendy data-related terms like AI and data mining. Before getting too intrigued by those terms, it will be more helpful to study statistics first.

Jung: I agree with Lim. I think that following trends that rise and fall in outlook is precarious. What is important is building up an academic foundation before jumping into anything, such as statistics and algorithms. The experience of working for a corporation, and being equipped with knowledge about the operations and the needs of a company are also very important.

Other charts and graphs made by DAISY. Click here to visit News Jelly's homepage. (Photo courtesy of News Jelly)